Picatinny rail question?

B

bswiv

New member
This will sound dumb but here goes..................

Is there a difference between a Picatinny rail and a Weaver rail? By that I mean can I mount a scope that was set up for one on the other using the same bases?

What is the difference besides the fact that the Picatinny seems to have a lot more slots?
 
The Picatinny rail evolved from the Weaver. While the dovetails are compatible, the cross slots are not. Weaver cross slots have a rounded cross-section, Picatinny a square cross-section.

You can fit Weaver rings to a Picatinny rail, though the cross-slot fit will be loose. Be sure that the rings' crossbars are against the forward surface of the cross slots so as to minimize movement of the rings from recoil.

Picatinny rings will not physically fit onto Weaver rails because their crossbars are too large to fit the Weaver cross slots.

Picatinny rails have a large number of crsoss slots for several reasons. One, the distance between the slots is specified. so that equipment configured (e.g., rings spaced) to fit one rail on one weapon could be moved to another weapon without reconfiguring the equipment. Since the weapons may differ, it may be necessary to position the equipment at a different point along the rail. The multitude of slots also ensures that equipment can be placed at the optimum location (e.g., for eye relief) for that equipment.

Regards,

Walt
 
Peter Kokalis goes on and on in his Shotgun News articles, that "Picatinny" does not equal M1913. He tends to cut-and-paste a lot, and I've read it a half-dozen times, but don't remember the exact details. The M1913 rail came out of a dead-end project that Colt was working on to create a weapons "system" based on the M16, and the dimensions of the rail on the flat-top upper were adopted as Mil-Spec. That's from memory, so I'm not going to be very adamant about it if someone refutes it.
 
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